Forgive me if this has been asked before, but I’m burning with curiosity. How do you two manage to create such a synchronized creative masterpiece? Do you map out your narratives with an architect’s precision, ensuring every single detail of your stunning mosaics has a purpose from start to finish? Or perhaps you begin with just a whisper of a plot, letting each chapter flow from point A to point B, written on the wings of pure inspiration? Or are you, by chance, from that rare breed of writers who don’t command the story, but rather surf its currents, wielding nothing but their writerly prowess and profound affection for the world and characters to keep from being pulled under?
Is it a delicate balancing act to find common ground when creating together? Do you often find yourselves engaged in passionate debates where the truth emerges? Or perhaps you are masters of different realms of writing, each tending to your own strengths without stepping on the other’s toes? Or, akin to a jazz duo, do you simultaneously polish the same document, building upon and developing each other’s thoughts? I would be beside myself with delight to hear the secrets of your craft, if you’d be so generous as to share!~
By the way, speaking of planning, alas, some elements will require a little more patience. Despite all my efforts to bring my tiny headcanon to life both well and quickly, if I try to push myself even a fraction harder, I will quite literally pass out from sheer exhaustion. So, please, grant me this small indulgence – this sliver of selfishness in the form of extra time. What awaits you is something truly astonishing. I guarantee it~
And since I missed the window for a proper “Coming Soon” on April Fool’s Day, I have something else. If your readers have even the vaguest notions about Nexus’s and Dark Sun’s culinary preferences, then know that for Ruin, beyond a fondness for tea, little has been revealed. Well then, an unholy, mischaracterized vision from Ava Z, meant as a bit of April Fool’s fun, might just bring a smile to your faces, if not necessarily inspiration.
Wishing you the most wonderful of moods~
Ooooh, this hasn’t been asked before! But we’re more than happy to answer! :)
For the first part of your question, …it’s a little bit of everything. We plan out the main beats of the story first, anything vital- like the start, the end, important character developments to get from A to B, any emotional arcs or character introductions, and we plot roughly where we want those to fall. Some of them get written up in rough really early on and then tweaked as we get closer to fitting them in to make sure they tie in with everything else we’ve added in between.
The rest is a bit looser, we talk a lot about the bits we want to expand on, which of the characters needs to have a bit more presence and any spontaneous bits of scene we want to add in.
And then finally, as we’re writing, the characters often command themselves, changing the original outline, and we ride that wave (and end up extending the chapter far beyond what we expected!)
As to the second part of your question … It’s a still a little of everything- but we don’t have any problem finding common ground. We most definitely act as a jazz duo as you so eloquently described it- there are scenes or topics that one of us might specialise in and we’ll pick up those bits primarily while the other polishes them or vice versa, but it’s a beautifully even split.
It goes through several layers of editing, we’ll both be writing different sections, pass to the other for editing and swap- and then often a little more is added until we’re both happy and it flows as one piece!
We spend a long time talking about a lot of concepts- many don’t make it to the finished product or are just for fun, but we often get lightning bolts of inspiration and we’re like “okay hear me out, so in this bit…” and we roll from there.
Also, you most definitely have our attention! 👀 But don’t stress yourself to rush on our account, take care of yourself first and foremost - we look forward to hearing/seeing anything about it!